​ARTISTIC STATEMENT

Photo by Mikki Schaffner Photography

Hello and welcome! My experience throughout the years as an actor, director, educator, playwright, producer, dramaturg and administrator has provided me a full circle view of theatre. Primarily working as a director and teacher now, I search for opportunities to stage new voices and re-mix the classics. My mission is to be an adaptable theatre artist who brings passion, creativity, insight and honesty to the stage. It is also a part of my ongoing mission to bring more attention to the female narrative and characters with untold stories through ensemble driven tales. I prefer working with an ensemble because I value the active contribution of my fellow artists in a collective nature.

I am attracted to new interpretations of familiar stories that explore archetypal characters and human nature. Writers who take cues from the Greeks or Shakespeare are engaging in the tradition of creating new forms out of the old, and I can always find a goose-bump inducing moment in recognizing characters, events or phrases I know from long before. I do have a particular love for the works of William Shakespeare and other early modern writers. I am inspired to explore them with an eye for truth and simplicity; looking for ways to express the play’s action with a modern sensibility. It's my belief that a deeper knowledge of the world around us is born out of our brief encounters with the past as we interpret it onstage.

Plays that have an emphasis on heightened, vivid language, the feminine point of view, relationship contentions, and spiritual crisis appeal to me the most. I am also strongly drawn to stories with an aspect of magic - plays where reality is slightly suspended yet there is truth to every moment. Pushing the boundaries of the known world is essential to stretching an audience’s imagination. Working on plays that explore what is in our hearts and our behaviors helps encourage an audience searching for greater understanding. The stories I tell on stage give people a chance to stir their souls with important questions. Hopefully, performances I direct will result in pleasure, provocation and an expanded perspective for all involved.